That Wonderful Face: Making Great Portraits with Your Canon 5D Mark III

Jul 23, 2012

📄 Contents

␡

Settings and Features to Make Great Portraits
Poring Over the Picture
Aperture Priority Mode
Lighting and Background
White Balance and ISO
Portrait Metering
The AE Lock Feature
Focus: The Eyes Have It
Focus Lock
How to Build a Composition
Classic Black-and-White Portraits
Chapter 4 Assignments

⎙ Print

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Canon 5D Mark III: From Snapshots to Great Shots

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Classic Black-and-White Portraits

There is a certain classic look to black-and-white portraiture (Figure 4.11). By eliminating color in emphasizing dark and light tones, we can experience a portrait subject in a very different way than we do with a traditional color photograph.

Figure 4.11 Though most of my images are made in color, some images look best rendered as black and white. In this image, I added a slight sepia tint to provide a classic look to the portrait of a fiddler.

Though I preferred to shoot color images and then later convert the images to black and white, the 5D Mark III allows you to see the captured image as a black-and-white image on your camera’s LCD monitor when you shoot in the Monochrome picture style. If you’re shooting JPEGs, the saved file will be a black-and-white image. If you’re shooting raw, the original raw file will still be in color, allowing you to convert the shot into black and white using your favorite photo-editing application.

Whether you shoot and capture raw files or JPEGs, setting the display for black and white can be a great educational tool to begin to learn to see the world in black and white.

To Set Your Picture Style to Monochrome, Follow these Steps:

Press the Creative Photo/Comparative playback (Two-image display)/Direct print button, and use the Main Dial to select the Picture Style mode. Press the Setting button.
Use the Quick Control Dial to select Monochrome Picture Style. Press the Setting button.

Your camera will continue to shoot with the Monochrome picture style until you change it to another setting.

To Customize the Picture Style Settings, Follow these Steps:

When you’re in the Picture Style section of the menu where you selected Monochrome, press the Info button located to the left of your viewfinder.
Use the multi-controller to highlight the setting you want to change, and press the Setting button.
Use the multi-controller to move the cursor to a new position on the scale (the default setting will remain marked with a gray arrow) or to select a different filter, and press the Setting button.
Perform the same process for the other options. Then press the Menu button to return to the regular menu screen. You can now start shooting with your new settings.

Tips for Shooting Better Portraits

Before we get to the assignments for this chapter, I thought it might be a good idea to leave you with a few extra pointers on shooting portraits that don’t necessarily have anything specific to do with your camera. Entire books cover subjects like portrait lighting, posing, and so on, but here are a few pointers that will make your people pictures look a lot better:

Choose a good quality of light. I often prefer an area of open shade. However, one way to determine whether you’re shooting your subject in bad light is simply to pay attention to what’s happening with the shadows. If you see dark and harsh shadows appearing on the subject’s face, particularly beneath the brow, chin, or nose, you’re likely working with high-contrast light, which is rarely flattering for a subject. If you find yourself in such a lighting situation, move your subject into an area of open shade where the lighting will be much more flattering and pleasing.
Find a clean and simple background. A common mistake is to photograph a subject but not pay attention to what’s happening in the background. Such images can include huge distractions, which compete with the subject for the viewer’s attention. Look for clean and simple backgrounds that are free of clutter. This will help the viewer focus completely on the subject.
Choose an appropriate focal length. Though you can use virtually any focal length for a portrait, I often prefer to use a focal length between 50mm and 135mm for most of the portraits that I make. I find that this focal length range renders the subject well, free of the distortion that might be found with a wider focal length. With longer telephoto lenses, I can throw the background out of focus and use the limited depth of field to emphasize my subject.
Pay attention to camera orientation. Make images with the camera oriented both vertically and horizontally. Carefully consider what you include in the frame. If you believe that an element in the background is distracting, find a way to eliminate it. Remember that if anything in the frame doesn’t serve the subject, you need to get rid of it.
Keep your eyes on the shutter speed. You must be constantly vigilant with respect to your shutter speed. Many great portraits are ruined because of camera shake. So, whenever you’re shooting in a lighting situation other than direct sunlight, make it a point to note your shutter speed and, if necessary, increase your ISO so that you can shoot with a fast-enough shutter speed to ensure a sharp photograph.
Don’t ask people to smile. Most people will put on a forced smile when the camera is pointed at them. Some smiles are very sincere and natural, but others look forced and uncomfortable. If they’re the latter, don’t hesitate to suggest that the subject not smile; tell the subject to relax and look directly into the camera’s lens. This can result in a good portrait, which renders the subject in a very natural and sincere way.
Get down to the subject’s eye level. When photographing children, I always try to get down to their eye level. Moving from the adult point of view to a kid’s point of view can make a remarkable difference in a photograph. Such images provide a level of intimacy that can’t happen otherwise. So, don’t hesitate to get on the floor with the kids, which will dramatically change the dynamic between you and them and, consequently, the photographs.
Photograph when they aren’t looking. Candid moments can be just as revealing as images where the subject is looking directly at the camera. Using a photojournalistic approach, a photographer can reveal the dynamics of relationships between people that are often missing in more traditional photographs. Being a fly on the wall and capturing images where people are interacting and reacting with each other can reveal more about the relationships than any other kind of image.

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